Peoria

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WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden will visit Peoria on Wednesday to deliver the keynote speech at a fund-raiser for an anti-violence group, his aides said today. Biden will be accompanied by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and former Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who is secretary of the Department of Transportation and a Peoria native, the aides said. The trip is Biden's first visit to Illinois this year and his fourth as vice president, said Annie Tomasini, a Biden spokeswoman.

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden, planning to visit Peoria Wednesday to deliver a speech to an anti-violence group, afterward will meet with local business owners and workers to discuss how the Recovery Act is helping the area, a spokeswoman said today. Biden will be accompanied by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and former Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who is secretary of the Department of Transportation and a Peoria native, the aides said. The trip is Biden's first visit to Illinois this year and his fourth as vice president, said Annie Tomasini, a Biden spokeswoman.

A fire-gutted apartment where two sisters and a man were found dead early Wednesday burned under suspicious circumstances a few hours after a birthday celebration for one of the women, authorities said. Youlandice Y. Simmons, who turned 24 on Wednesday, along with her sister, Brianna Simmons, 22, and a friend, 19-year-old Darresse Roddy, died in the fire at a home in Peoria, Peoria County coroner Johnna Ingersoll said. All three were found near a window in a bedroom. Youlandice Simmons' 2-year-old son, Darryl Miller Jr., was taken to a Springfield hospital burn unit, though his condition was not available.

Authorities in Peoria say a suspicious fire there has claimed a fourth victim. The latest victim, 2-year-old Darryl Miller Jr., died Thursday at St. John's Hospital in Springfield after surviving family members decided to take him off life support. The toddler had been without oxygen for as long as 40 minutes Wednesday morning and was being kept alive on a ventilator. The child was rescued from an upstairs bedroom of the home as flames from a suspicious blaze spread upward from the stairwell leading to the apartment.

A couple in Streator supports one another while looking at heavy damage done to their home by Saturday night's tornadoes. (WGN-Ch.9) Dan Villarreal stepped outside his trailer home in Dwight and looked to the sky. It was 9:18 p.m. and calm, at least for the moment. Then came the wail of a storm siren and a loud "whooshing" sound he described as the sound of "a million freight trains. " Villarreal, 43, ran back inside, told his wife to get their 11-month-old daughter and for several terrifying moments, the mother and father hunkered down over their daughter, their bodies shielding her as windows shattered, appliances tumbled over and the entire trailer shook violently with the force of a tornado passing by. "I just kept praying," Barbara Villarreal said.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Alleged al-Qaida sleeper agent Ali al-Marri, smiling and seemingly relaxed, appeared in federal court Tuesday to face terror charges -- his first time outside a nearby military brig in more than five years. Al-Marri, who had been held without charge as an enemy combatant, now faces civilian federal charges in Illinois of providing material support to terror and conspiracy. President Barack Obama last month ordered al-Marri surrendered to civil authorities after he was indicted in federal court in Peoria, Ill. Around the same time, the administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss a legal challenge by al-Marri to his military detention, which the court last week agreed to do. The 43-year-old Qatar native made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Carr, telling the judge he understood the charges and his rights.

PEORIA -- A 28-year-old Peoria woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for putting her infant son in scalding bath water. Jessica Hall apologized at her sentencing Friday and told the judge she loved her child. Hall's son was 4 months old when she put him in the tub of too-hot water in July 2009. He was burned over 30 percent of his body and still has scars. Court records say Hall told police she pulled her son out of the water when she saw his skin was "melting" off. Prosecutors say she left him for up to two minutes after she realized it was too hot. She didn't seek medical attention for two days.

A three-year-old was shot in the head while at home Friday night, according to Peoria police. At 10:38 p.m., Peoria police responded to calls of shots fired in the 1300 block of North North Street, according to a Peoria police officer. When officers arrived, they found a 3-year-old child shot in the head, the officer said. The child had been inside the house at the time. Multiple shots had been fired into the house and a parked vehicle outside. The child was transported to OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria in unknown condition, the officer said.

A Peoria man was killed in Will County after being involved in a car accident on Interstate Highway 55 over the weekend, officials said today. Darren Wade, 44, was killed Saturday minutes after his Ford Mustang had been involved in an accident with a Toyota Camry, Illinois State police officials said. Wade was killed after his car was rear-ended by a third vehicle on the southbound lanes of I-55 near Illinois Highway 59 in Troy Township, police said. The incident began about 6:58 a.m. when Wade was involved in the accident with a Toyota Camry driven by Yuanbang Lin, 61, of Chicago.

With Drew Peterson's murder trial set to begin next month, investigators launched yet another search for the remains of his fourth wife, Stacy, whose 2007 disappearance made national headlines. Prompted by a jailhouse tip, authorities traveled to a farm near Peoria and spent most of Saturday digging for the Bolingbrook woman's body. No remains were found after searchers with shovels excavated a small section of muddy, timber-heavy land near Kickapoo Creek, authorities said. The excavation party, which included a forensic anthropologist, may resume work Monday and expand to other areas of the farm, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Tom Burek.